[MS-SWSB]:

SOAP Over WebSocket Protocol Binding

Intellectual Property Rights Notice for Open Specifications Documentation

Technical Documentation. Microsoft publishes Open Specifications documentation (“this documentation”) for protocols, file formats, data portability, computer languages, and standards support. Additionally, overview documents cover inter-protocol relationships and interactions.

Copyrights. This documentation is covered by Microsoft copyrights. Regardless of any other terms that are contained in the terms of use for the Microsoft website that hosts this documentation, you can make copies of it in order to develop implementations of the technologies that are described in this documentation and can distribute portions of it in your implementations that use these technologies or in your documentation as necessary to properly document the implementation. You can also distribute in your implementation, with or without modification, any schemas, IDLs, or code samples that are included in the documentation. This permission also applies to any documents that are referenced in the Open Specifications documentation.

No Trade Secrets. Microsoft does not claim any trade secret rights in this documentation.

Patents. Microsoft has patents that might cover your implementations of the technologies described in the Open Specifications documentation. Neither this notice nor Microsoft's delivery of this documentation grants any licenses under those patents or any other Microsoft patents. However, a given Open Specifications document might be covered by the Microsoft Open Specifications Promise or the Microsoft Community Promise. If you would prefer a written license, or if the technologies described in this documentation are not covered by the Open Specifications Promise or Community Promise, as applicable, patent licenses are available by contacting .

License Programs. To see all of the protocols in scope under a specific license program and the associated patents, visit the Patent Map.

Trademarks. The names of companies and products contained in this documentation might be covered by trademarks or similar intellectual property rights. This notice does not grant any licenses under those rights. For a list of Microsoft trademarks, visit

Fictitious Names. The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people, places, and events that are depicted in this documentation are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred.

Reservation of Rights. All other rights are reserved, and this notice does not grant any rights other than as specifically described above, whether by implication, estoppel, or otherwise.

Tools. The Open Specifications documentation does not require the use of Microsoft programming tools or programming environments in order for you to develop an implementation. If you have access to Microsoft programming tools and environments, you are free to take advantage of them. Certain Open Specifications documents are intended for use in conjunction with publicly available standards specifications and network programming art and, as such, assume that the reader either is familiar with the aforementioned material or has immediate access to it.

Support. For questions and support, please contact .

Revision Summary

Date / Revision History / Revision Class / Comments
12/16/2011 / 1.0 / New / Released new document.
3/30/2012 / 1.0 / None / No changes to the meaning, language, or formatting of the technical content.
7/12/2012 / 2.0 / Major / Significantly changed the technical content.
10/25/2012 / 2.0 / None / No changes to the meaning, language, or formatting of the technical content.
1/31/2013 / 2.0 / None / No changes to the meaning, language, or formatting of the technical content.
8/8/2013 / 2.1 / Minor / Clarified the meaning of the technical content.
11/14/2013 / 2.1 / None / No changes to the meaning, language, or formatting of the technical content.
2/13/2014 / 2.1 / None / No changes to the meaning, language, or formatting of the technical content.
5/15/2014 / 2.1 / None / No changes to the meaning, language, or formatting of the technical content.
6/30/2015 / 3.0 / Major / Significantly changed the technical content.
10/16/2015 / 3.0 / None / No changes to the meaning, language, or formatting of the technical content.
7/14/2016 / 3.0 / None / No changes to the meaning, language, or formatting of the technical content.
3/16/2017 / 4.0 / Major / Significantly changed the technical content.
6/1/2017 / 4.0 / None / No changes to the meaning, language, or formatting of the technical content.

Table of Contents

1Introduction

1.1Glossary

1.2References

1.2.1Normative References

1.2.2Informative References

1.3Overview

1.4Relationship to Other Protocols

1.5Prerequisites/Preconditions

1.6Applicability Statement

1.7Versioning and Capability Negotiation

1.8Vendor-Extensible Fields

1.9Standards Assignments

2Messages

2.1Transport

2.2Common Message Syntax

2.2.1Namespaces

2.2.2Messages

2.2.3Elements

2.2.4Complex Types

2.2.5Simple Types

2.2.6Attributes

2.2.7Groups

2.2.8Attribute Groups

2.2.9Common Data Structures

2.3Directory Service Schema Elements

3Protocol Details

3.1Server Details

3.1.1Abstract Data Model

3.1.2Timers

3.1.3Initialization

3.1.4Message Processing Events and Sequencing Rules

3.1.5Timer Events

3.1.6Other Local Events

3.2Client Details

3.2.1Abstract Data Model

3.2.2Timers

3.2.3Initialization

3.2.4Message Processing Events and Sequencing Rules

3.2.5Timer Events

3.2.6Other Local Events

4Protocol Examples

5Security

5.1Security Considerations for Implementers

5.2Index of Security Parameters

6Appendix A: Full WSDL

7Appendix B: Product Behavior

8Change Tracking

9Index

1Introduction

The SOAP over WebSocket Protocol Binding Specification defines a binding of SOAP to the WebSocket protocol (as defined in [RFC6455]), including a WSDL transport URI and supported message exchange patterns (MEPs). This specification also defines a WebSocket subprotocol.

Note This specification does not define any SOAP messages. Rather, it specifies how messages defined by a higher-layer protocol are formed and framed for transport over [RFC6455].

Sections 1.5, 1.8, 1.9, 2, and 3 of this specification are normative. All other sections and examples in this specification are informative.

1.1Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

endpoint: A client that is on a network and is requesting access to a network access server (NAS).

SOAP: A lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP uses XML technologies to define an extensible messaging framework, which provides a message construct that can be exchanged over a variety of underlying protocols. The framework has been designed to be independent of any particular programming model and other implementation-specific semantics. SOAP 1.2 supersedes SOAP 1.1. See [SOAP1.2-1/2003].

SOAP message: An XML document consisting of a mandatory SOAP envelope, an optional SOAP header, and a mandatory SOAP body. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5 for more information.

Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): A string that identifies a resource. The URI is an addressing mechanism defined in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax [RFC3986].

Web Services Description Language (WSDL): An XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints that operate on messages that contain either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. The operations and messages are described abstractly and are bound to a concrete network protocol and message format in order to define an endpoint. Related concrete endpoints are combined into abstract endpoints, which describe a network service. WSDL is extensible, which allows the description of endpoints and their messages regardless of the message formats or network protocols that are used.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.

1.2References

Links to a document in the Microsoft Open Specifications library point to the correct section in the most recently published version of the referenced document. However, because individual documents in the library are not updated at the same time, the section numbers in the documents may not match. You can confirm the correct section numbering by checking the Errata.

1.2.1Normative References

We conduct frequent surveys of the normative references to assure their continued availability. If you have any issue with finding a normative reference, please contact . We will assist you in finding the relevant information.

[MC-NBFSE] Microsoft Corporation, ".NET Binary Format: SOAP Extension".

[MC-NBFS] Microsoft Corporation, ".NET Binary Format: SOAP Data Structure".

[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997,

[RFC3902] Baker, M., and Nottingham, M., "The 'application/soap+xml' media type", RFC 3902, September 2004,

[RFC6455] Fette, I., and Melnikov, A., "The WebSocket Protocol", RFC 6455, December 2011,

[SOAP1.2-1/2007] Gudgin, M., Hadley, M., Mendelsohn, N., et al., "SOAP Version 1.2 Part 1: Messaging Framework (Second Edition)", W3C Recommendation, April 2007,

[SOAP1.2-2/2007] Gudgin, M., Hadley, M., Mendelsohn, N., et al., "SOAP Version 1.2 Part 2: Adjuncts (Second Edition)", W3C Recommendation, April 2007,

[SOAP1.2-3/2007] W3C, "SOAP 1.2 Part 3: One-Way MEP", W3C Working Group Note 2, July 2007,

[WSDLSOAP] Angelov, D., Ballinger, K., Butek, R., et al., "WSDL 1.1 Binding Extension for SOAP 1.2", W3C Member Submission, April 2006,

[WSDL] Christensen, E., Curbera, F., Meredith, G., and Weerawarana, S., "Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 1.1", W3C Note, March 2001,

[XMLNS-2ED] World Wide Web Consortium, "Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Second Edition)", August 2006,

[XMLSCHEMA1] Thompson, H., Beech, D., Maloney, M., and Mendelsohn, N., Eds., "XML Schema Part 1: Structures", W3C Recommendation, May 2001,

[XMLSCHEMA2] Biron, P.V., Ed. and Malhotra, A., Ed., "XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes", W3C Recommendation, May 2001,

1.2.2Informative References

None.

1.3Overview

The SOAP over WebSocket Protocol Binding:

Specifies a WSDL Transport URI ( for identifying this protocol as the transport for sending SOAP 1.2 messages [SOAP1.2-2/2007].

Defines a new WebSocket subprotocol (soap), as described in [RFC6455], which is used by the client to indicate to the service that it intends to use the SOAP-over-WebSockets protocol for message exchange.

Defines two new HTTP headers ('soap-content-type' and 'microsoft-binary-transfer-mode') that are used by the client during the initial WebSocket handshake to indicate the SOAP content-type and the transfer-mode of the subsequent messages.

1.4Relationship to Other Protocols

The SOAP over WebSocket Protocol Binding uses the WebSocket protocol, as described in [RFC6455], as the transport. The SOAP over WebSocket Protocol Binding uses WebSocket framing as defined in section 5 of [RFC6455] to send SOAP 1.2 messages [SOAP1.2-2/2007].

The following figure shows the protocol stack.

Figure 1: Protocol stack

1.5Prerequisites/Preconditions

The SOAP over WebSocket Protocol Binding requires that a client can connect to the service over the WebSocket protocol, as described in [RFC6455].

1.6Applicability Statement

The SOAP over WebSocket Protocol Binding is applicable in scenarios where a client and a service require a communication mechanism to send and receive SOAP messages over WebSocket ([RFC6455]).

1.7Versioning and Capability Negotiation

This document covers versioning issues in the following areas:

Supported transports: This protocol requires WebSocket ([RFC6455]) as the transport.

Protocol versions: The use of SOAP version 1.2 [SOAP1.2-1/2007] is required.

Capability negotiation: This protocol does not support negotiation of the version or the capabilities to use.

1.8Vendor-Extensible Fields

This protocol has no vendor-extensible fields.

1.9Standards Assignments

There are no standards assignments for this protocol.

2Messages

2.1Transport

The SOAP over WebSocket Protocol Binding requires the WebSocket transport protocol (as specified in [RFC6455]).

A service endpoint that uses the SOAP over WebSocket Protocol Binding with SOAP 1.2 [SOAP1.2-1/2007] MUST set the value of the transport attribute of the wsoap12:binding element [WSDLSOAP] to

2.2Common Message Syntax

This section contains common definitions used by this protocol. The syntax of the definitions uses XML schema as defined in [XMLSCHEMA1] and [XMLSCHEMA2], and Web Services Description Language (WSDL) as defined in [WSDL].

2.2.1Namespaces

This specification defines and references various XML namespaces using the mechanisms specified in [XMLNS-2ED]. Although this specification associates a specific XML namespace prefix for each XML namespace that is used, the choice of any particular XML namespace prefix is implementation-specific and not significant for interoperability.

Prefix / Namespace URI / Reference
soap12 / / [WSDLSOAP]
wsdl / / [WSDL]

2.2.2Messages

This specification does not define any common XML schema message definitions.

2.2.3Elements

This specification does not define any common XML schema element definitions.

2.2.4Complex Types

This specification does not define any common XML schema complex type definitions.

2.2.5Simple Types

This specification does not define any common XML schema simple type definitions.

2.2.6Attributes

This specification does not define any common XML schema attribute definitions.

2.2.7Groups

This specification does not define any common XML schema group definitions.

2.2.8Attribute Groups

This specification does not define any common XML schema attribute group definitions.

2.2.9Common Data Structures

This specification does not define any common XML schema data structures.

2.3Directory Service Schema Elements

None.

3Protocol Details

3.1Server Details

A service endpoint MUST support the following message exchange patterns:

 (defined in [SOAP1.2-2/2007])

 (defined in [SOAP1.2-3/2007])

3.1.1Abstract Data Model

None.

3.1.2Timers

None.

3.1.3Initialization

None.

3.1.4Message Processing Events and Sequencing Rules

None.

3.1.5Timer Events

None.

3.1.6Other Local Events

None.

3.2Client Details

A client initiates the process by establishing a WebSocket connection, as specified in [RFC6455], to a service. A client MUST specify that it intends to communicate with the service using this SOAP-over-Websocket subprotocol by providing a "soap" value in the "Sec-WebSocket-Protocol" HTTP header during the initialization while performing a WebSocket handshake as specified in [RFC6455] section 1.3. A client MUST also specify a soap-content-type header to indicate the content-type of the subsequent SOAP messages once the WebSocket handshake is successfully completed. A client SHOULD also specify a 'microsoft-binary-transfer-mode' with the transfer-mode while using the binary encoding as specified in [MC-NBFS] or [MC-NBFSE]. Valid values for the transfer-mode are:

  1. 'Streamed', which indicates that messages sent and received from the web service endpoint are transferred as a stream of bytes.
  2. 'StreamedRequest', which indicates that only the messages sent to a web service endpoint are transferred as a stream of bytes.
  3. 'StreamedResponse', which indicates that the messages received from the web service endpoint are interpreted as a stream of bytes.

Once a WebSocket connection has been successfully established between the client and the server, all subsequent message exchanges MUST conform to the SOAP 1.2 [SOAP1.2-1/2007] specification with the encoding as specified in [RFC3902] while sending the messages using the framing as defined in [RFC6455].

3.2.1Abstract Data Model

None.

3.2.2Timers

None.

3.2.3Initialization

None.

3.2.4Message Processing Events and Sequencing Rules

None.

3.2.5Timer Events

None.

3.2.6Other Local Events

None.

4Protocol Examples

Section 6, Appendix A: Full WSDL, specifies the SOAP over WebSocket Binding Transport URI defined in this document.

The following HTTP headers section is an example of the WebSocket subprotocol defined by this specification:

GET HTTP/1.1

Connection: Upgrade,Keep-Alive

Upgrade: websocket

Sec-WebSocket-Key: ROOw9dYOJkStW2nx5r1k9w==

Sec-WebSocket-Version: 13

Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: soap

soap-content-type: application/soap+msbinsession1

microsoft-binary-transfer-mode: Buffered

Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate

HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols

Upgrade: websocket

Connection: Upgrade

Sec-WebSocket-Accept: s3pPLMBiTxaQ9kYGzzhZRbK+xOo=

Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: soap

5Security

5.1Security Considerations for Implementers

Security considerations are discussed in detail under the security considerations section (section 10) in [RFC6455].

There are no special security considerations for this protocol.

5.2Index of Security Parameters

None.

6Appendix A: Full WSDL

The following WSDL specifies the WSDL 1.1 binding extension transport URI with SOAP1.2:

WSDL 1.1 binding extension transport URI with SOAP 1.2 [SOAP1.2-2/2007]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<wsdl:definitions

xmlns:wsdl="

xmlns:soap12="

<!-- omitted elements -->

<wsdl:binding name="MyBinding" type="MyPortType">

<!-- omitted elements -->

<soap12:binding transport="

<wsdl:operation name="MyOperation">

<!-- ommitted elements -->

</wsdl:operation>

</wsdl:binding>

<wsdl:service name="MyService">

<wsdl:port name="MyPort" binding="MyBinding">

<soap12:address location=" ws://myHost/myService/" />

</wsdl:port>

</wsdl:service>

</wsdl:definitions>

7Appendix B: Product Behavior

The information in this specification is applicable to the following Microsoft products or supplemental software. References to product versions include released service packs.

This document specifies version-specific details in the Microsoft .NET Framework. For information about which versions of the .NET Framework are available in each released Windows product or as supplemental software, see [MS-NETOD] section 4.

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7

Windows 8 operating system

Windows Server 2012 operating system

Windows 8.1 operating system

Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system

Windows 10 operating system

Windows Server 2016 operating system

Exceptions, if any, are noted below. If a service pack or Quick Fix Engineering (QFE) number appears with the product version, behavior changed in that service pack or QFE. The new behavior also applies to subsequent service packs of the product unless otherwise specified. If a product edition appears with the product version, behavior is different in that product edition.

Unless otherwise specified, any statement of optional behavior in this specification that is prescribed using the terms "SHOULD" or "SHOULD NOT" implies product behavior in accordance with the SHOULD or SHOULD NOT prescription. Unless otherwise specified, the term "MAY" implies that the product does not follow the prescription.

8Change Tracking

No table of changes is available. The document is either new or has had no changes since its last release.

9Index

1 / 17

[MS-SWSB] - v20170601

SOAP Over WebSocket Protocol Binding

Copyright © 2017 Microsoft Corporation

Release: June 1, 2017

A

Abstract data model

client10

server9

Applicability6

Attribute groups8

Attributes7

C

Capability negotiation6

Change tracking15

Client

abstract data model10

initialization10

local events10

message processing10

sequencing rules10

timer events10

timers10

Common data structures8

Complex types7

D

Data model - abstract

client10

server9

Data structures8

Directory service schema elements8

E

Elements - directory service schema8

Events

local - client10

local - server9

timer - client10

timer - server9

Examples11

F

Fields - vendor-extensible6

Full WSDL13

G

Glossary4

Groups7

I

Implementer - security considerations12

Index of security parameters12

Informative references5

Initialization

client10

server9

Introduction4

L

Local events

client10

server9

M

Message processing

client10

server9

Messages

attribute groups8

attributes7

common data structures8

complex types7

data structures8

elements7

enumerated7

groups7

namespaces7

simple types7

syntax7

transport7

N

Namespaces7

Normative references4

O

Overview (synopsis)5

P

Parameters - security index12

Preconditions6

Prerequisites6

Product behavior14

R

References4

informative5

normative4

Relationship to other protocols6

S

Schema elements - directory service8

Security

implementer considerations12

parameter index12

Sequencing rules

client10

server9

Server

abstract data model9

initialization9

local events9

message processing9

sequencing rules9

timer events9

timers9

Simple types7

Standards assignments6

Syntax

messages - overview7

T

Timer events

client10

server9

Timers

client10

server9

Tracking changes15

Transport7

Types

complex7

simple7

V

Vendor-extensible fields6

Versioning6

W

WSDL13

1 / 17

[MS-SWSB] - v20170601

SOAP Over WebSocket Protocol Binding

Copyright © 2017 Microsoft Corporation

Release: June 1, 2017